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Jenkintown SD presents spring benchmark gains, highlights watch lists and interventions
Summary
Dr. Janke presented spring AIMSweb Plus benchmark results showing reductions in high‑risk students from fall to spring and outlined watch lists, tiered interventions and teacher training to sustain progress; administrators plan to refine parent communications and fall reassessment cycles.
Dr. Janke, the district’s data presenter, told the board on June 10 that spring benchmark results from AIMSweb Plus show better-than-expected movement from fall to spring and that targeted interventions helped lower the number of students in the highest-risk category.
He said the number of students in Tier 3 for English language arts fell from 57 in the fall to 32 in the spring — 32 out of about 400 students — and that math Tier 3 counts dropped from 36 to 16. He noted that fifth-grade ELA had zero students in Tier 3 in the spring and that across grades the green (low-risk) segment expanded while red (high-risk) shrank.
“Those are the kinds of shifts we want to see,” Dr. Janke said, summarizing graphs shown to the board. He told trustees some anomalies in the data were caused by students taking the wrong assessment or by possible testing fatigue, and that a few grades missed the fall pre-assessment, which made some comparisons invalid.
To address students who remain at moderate or high risk, Dr. Janke described a watch list and tiered interventions, including continued pull‑outs by special educators, targeted instruction during “win time,” and classroom-based progress monitoring. He said the district will reassess in the fall — likely within the second week of school — to identify students who need immediate supports and avoid wasting instructional weeks.
Board members asked whether the three-point annual schedule captures summer learning loss and whether the test is adaptive. Dr. Janke said AIMSweb Plus is not adaptive; it is a nationally normed, skills‑based benchmark that measures projected one-year growth. He said some students do make more than one year of growth, and the district will continue to use classroom assessments and progress monitoring alongside AIMSweb data.
On data use, Dr. Janke and administrators emphasized professional development: building teacher capacity to interpret the dashboard, expanding grade-level data discussions, and embedding articulation time so teachers can use the reports to form groups and interventions. He said the district may reduce other overlapping assessments next school year to limit testing fatigue.
Administrators committed to planning how to share benchmark results with parents — through targeted communications and information sessions — while ensuring materials include context and explanations so families understand what the numbers mean. The district also plans to track students longitudinally as they use AIMSweb in subsequent years.
